Ma'ariv reported yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has turned over to the U.S. a document setting out Israel's security demands in a final agreement, and that the U.S. is considering "bridging" proposals to split the differences between Israeli and Palestinian offers down the middle, and defy the Israel lobby by doing so. But look how far apart the sides are: Ma'ariv says the Israelis are offering 93 percent of "Judea and Samaria," and that the 7 percent Israel plans to hold on to includes all the land west of the fence, including Palestinian farmland I blogged about yesterday. "The differences between the two sides are still significant," Ma'ariv says. "Since Israel does not count the area of greater Jerusalem" in that 93 percent figure. And Jerusalem has been put off for last, if a deal can be reached on territory and refugees.
But how? Israel's security demands sound like occupation by another name. Says the paper (I've got no link, this is fan mail from some flounder):
1. The Palestinian state will be fully demilitarized…
2. The Palestinian state will be forbidden from entering military alliances with other countries.
3. Israeli warning stations will be positioned on hilltops [in the West Bank ].
4. The IDF will maintain a presence along the Jordan River…
6. Israel will retain its control over air space.
7. Israel will have access to roads that run deep into Judea and Samaria .
As for the right of return under UN 194, Ma'ariv says that Israel would offer to absorb an as yet undetermined number of refugees in “humanitarian cases only.” The numbers are likely to be a
few thousand every year for approximately ten years.
What is the American interest? Ma'ariv adds the following about the lobby:
Oh, now it's lobbies. When will the American people/journalists wake up to our interest here?
